Motivation 101: Top 5 notes to myself to find the motivation.

With my first “real” attempt at a long distance race a mere 9 days away.  I have found myself struggling to keep the motivation…maybe it’s because I was really nervous early in my training and ended up completing it a month early or simply losing focus…  Whatever it is, this past week has been tough.

I initially began writing this to try to encourage myself to stay motivated for the 13.1, but have found that there is more correlation to other areas in my life.  Specifically, I have given thought to the similarities between the motivation in my running and professional career in the sales industry.   After a bit of reading and research, I figured I would share some notes I have taken for myself…as always in top 5 format.

5.  Keep the goals in sight and don’t forget the plan to get me there:   In my initial post, I commented that I always like to have a goal in mind when starting a project.  In running, that current goal is a half-marathon and in sales they call that a quota.   I can approach these goals in the same way; Break them down into smaller obtainable steps to tackle one at a time.   Recently I believe I lost sight of those end goals and lost focus on just hitting those small achievements at a time.   I need to remember to concentrate on winning each deal I can and completing every training run I have.   Spend my time doing those things and the motivation will come.

4.  View the success of others in a non-jealous way:  This one is a hard one to take on.  In my head I was trying to understand the balance of the ability to view others accomplishing their goals, while not achieving your own.  And that is the thought process that I needed to change, it’s not “not achieving my goals”…it’s “not achieving my goals YET”.   So I don’t need to be jealous of what others are doing, I simply need to look at them as a guide for what I will be doing shortly.  Using that line of reasoning I know I can be there to cheer on my fellow runners crossing their finish lines and encourage my teammates  to hit their quotas…confidently knowing that I will soon be doing that myself.

3.  Enjoy the benefits:  For whatever reason, this came as a revelation to me.   We put so much pressure on achieving a snapshot in time whether that snapshot is when you tear that tape at the finish line, or when you see the dashboard in Salesforce.com hit 100%.  But with months of work being put in to view those pictures you forget to look at yourself half way through and realize that there plenty of gratification to get out of the journey.   For whatever reason, if I can’t make it through to see those goals realized, I can still be extremely happy with the work that I have done to get me here. 

2.  Don’t let others down:  While running is an individual sport and I only have my own personal quota, it helps to know that I am part of a team.   Finding people who have similar goals, and banding together to meet those goals gives a sense of accountability and even more reason to push hard to achieve.   We have a team of people at the office all working together to help each other hit our individual goals.  And in running I have found that regardless if you physically run together you can still find motivation by sharing your goals and achievements with people to help cheer you on.  #ETrun comes to mind. (sweatbands required)
 

1.  Don’t look at this as the end…only the beginning, or at least a half way point.   For me, its always “what’s next”.   I find excitement and motivation by doing things I have never done before.   So I am already looking for that next objective to set my sights on.   In sales, the 2011 season will be here before I know it and I need to start filling the pipe now…and in running 13.1 miles barely holds a candle compared to 26.2 ….so I think I’ll try that.

As I wrap up writing this, I already find myself motivated by reviewing what can and will be done over the next couple weeks…time to focus and get going! Wooly Woot!

A reflection of life: The Top 5 observations that I may be getting old…

So this is it, tomorrow I turn the big 3-0, a milestone in my life.  Earlier this week my mom gave me one of the best presents (besides tickets to see Tosh.0 live…thanks Abby) that I never could expect.   A 10 DVD set of all Becker home movies made between 1978 and 2002.  Over the last couple days I have poured over these videos remembering friends and family and the adventures we have had.

Looking through the graininess of the film that only a shoulder mounted camcorder can produce, I made several stark realizations that something profound may be happening here…I am not only turning 30…I may be turning OLD!  Ugh.
 
So in proper top 5 format, here are a few of my observations brought me to this pivotal point.

5.  Technology:  This is a given.  Technology has absolutely changed the way that we interact with each other, how we learn, how we work and play.  When I wanted to talk with a friend back in 1990, I would literally run to their house and talk to them (benefits of living in a small town: Upland, IN 46989).  I learned to type on an ancient device called a TYPEWRITER in high school.  I also consider myself extremely lucky to have been in the key demographic for the rise in video games.
 
One particularly fond memory is going to the only MAC that I was aware of in town, popping in the 5 1/4” Apple II floppy disk containing arguably the best video game of all time: Oregon Trail.  (side note:  the capacity of a 5 ¼” was 1MB.  I recently purchased a 1TB drive for my home PC…which could contain the same amount of data as 1,048,567 floppys). To beat the game of Oregon Trail I recall there are only a couple simple rules you need to follow.

    - Be the Banker.

    - Shoot everything that moves, completely ignoring the fact that you can only carry back 100lbs of food.

    - Don’t get dysentery.

To that end I believe the downfall of my professional athletic career came when I received the original NES in 1987, subsequently followed by nearly every gaming system that Nintendo has offered since.  Lastly, the simple fact that I know the code for 20 lives in Contra by heart: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Select, Start…signifies that I am old.  I can’t image what my children’s experience will be when they turn 16 and are allowed to use electronic devices.

4.  Car Safety: Reviewing one video where my family and I were loading up to go on an hour long drive to Indianapolis in our ’85 Ford Escort wagon.  I noticed something very interesting that I hadn’t thought about.  There were 3 kids ranging from 5 – 9yrs old in the back, where the seat faced BACKWARD not wearing seatbelts.   Try doing that today, you get ugly stairs from mothers and will likely get cited for some form of child neglect.   How I made it to be 30 years old with the lack of safety devices we have today…I will never know.

3.  Money:  I swear I didn’t always used to be cheap. As a kid, I would splurge my allowance money on candy.  In high school I would find small jobs so I could generate just enough capital so that I could spend it on things like new roller blades, a paintball gun or fireworks.  In college it was computers, TV’s and car parts.    For my birthday this year, I did receive a nice card with several crisp clean bills included.   When talking with a friend of what I was going to do with that money, I half jokingly said “I will probably end up spending it on gas and groceries.” And for the past several birthdays has been true.  So maybe for my 30th year I will go out and get something frivolous like I used to…Only I am struggling to think of anything, help me out.

2.  Style: This is just a fact. If you ever wore skin tight bathing suits or sported a rat tail as a kid…you are now officially old.   

1.  Body: This is the one where I am supposed to say that my body aches when I do anything. That I need to realize that I need to be more careful about the activities I choose to participate in.   But surprisingly enough, I find myself in better shape for my 30th birthday than I was when I was 20, due to my recent running activities (previous post).   And for that, I am encouraged and inspired to venture into my 4th decade with confidence that in 10 years maybe I can be in better shape than I am now…writing about how archaic the iPad once was.

My First Top 5: Top 5 of going from nothing to something.

4 months ago I was not a writer and certainly not a runner…but as of today, it appears as though I am doing both.  

Like many people I know in their late 20’s and early 30’s, it seems as though we are all trying to do things as we were in college.  A normal weekend in college would generally involve me going to the movies for the 10:30pm show, followed by dinner, then caffeinated coffee, a game of Frisbee golf and in bed no earlier than 4am.   On special occasions you could find my friends and I jumping on freight trains, shooting guns at propane tanks (true story…its cheap fun), driving to NYC on a whim, riding motorcycles, skydiving or bungee jumping.  Oh the things we came up with whilst residing on a dry campus. During those times I never thought about my cholesterol or my ability to endure hours of physical activity.  

Now, a normal weekend includes watching Saturday morning cartoons, with a large cup of coffee to ward off taking a nap, then grocery shopping with the wife and kids (which generally turns into simply wrangling children),  cleaning the house, more wrangling of the children, an evening watching DVR’d shows with the wife and in bed no later than 10pm. I certainly would like to think that I could still stay up until 4am…but several recent attempts have proven a horrible idea by the 9am next day. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my wife and children and love the time I get to spend with them.  The point is that the things I did in college, generally involved some form of physical activity (example: running to jump on a train, or running to avoid the campus police). And now, I need to come up with reasons to get out from behind the computer, off the couch and into the outdoors.  As of late I have felt especially compelled to find those reasons.

So why now?   Well, pretty much because a doctor told me.  It was a wake up call when a recent medical checkup revealed that due to high cholesterol running in my family and the fact that I have had an artery bypass surgery; either I need to start getting into shape or start taking Lipitor…at the age of 29, how sad.

So since that time, I had several attempts at diet plans…low carbs, no carbs, Atkins, Weight Watchers, low calorie, high protein, 7 small meals a day and yes even a colon cleansing adventure. Sure some of these worked temporarily but at the sacrifice of one of my fondest activities…eating GOOD food.  As one of my good friends, Dr. Brumback puts it; I needed a life-style change, not a diet. So I went in search of a methodology that allowed me to eat what I wanted, when I wanted it while still maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Hence the running began. 

Let me make something perfectly clear, I have not EVER been a runner, nor did I think I ever would become one. I have always been the slightly overweight kid that has not played an organized active sport in my life.   If you added up all the miles I have actually ran in the past 6 years, it would probably not even equal a half marathon.

So where do you start?  Well… like most things in life, I just gave it a shot. One bright spring morning, I got out my 6 yr old “running” shoes, the only pair of athletic shorts I own and one of the 30+ ExactTarget t-shirts in my closet and walked out the front door.  About 8 minutes and a half mile later I was gasping for breath, clenching my side and wondering how in the world I was going to make it back that half mile to my house. At that point I was faced with two decisions; acknowledging that my 185lb, 5’ 6” frame was not meant for running, or find the motivation and drive to keep going. I chose the latter.   

I have never been one to start doing something without the end in mind. When doing art work, you have to have sketches of what you want to create. In sales you have a quota that you need to hit. And in running, I told myself, you need a goal to reach for. So with that half mile under my belt, I signed up for the Indianapolis Mini Marathon.  BTW, I didn’t realize you have to PAY money to run in these things and those who know me, know that I tend to be a bit thrifty. So shelling out $50+ to run 13.1 miles was hard, but also gives me another reason to hit that goal…not wasting $50.

A lot has happened in the last several months, and I am proud of the progress that I have made.  I went from not being able to make it that half mile to hitting small goals of running an entire mile without stopping, running two miles without stopping, to running three. Two weeks ago I completed in my first ever 5k race at a respectable 8:37pace. And this past weekend, my long run was 10mi, which I surprisingly did with ease. As an added benefit to hitting these goals, I’ve also seen some fairly nice results on the side. I have lost 35+ lbs, I sleep better, have more energy during the day, and all the while not compromising my love of good food!

Its like p90-X , without actually spending the money! (results may vary)

So for this first blog entry, I thought I would share the top 5 things that I (as a complete novice) have learned in trying to go from a nothing: a non-runner, to something: a half-marathon finisher, in 6 months.

5.   You DON’T need anything special to run. Not having good shoes or shorts or a watch are not excuses for not getting out there. You just need to do it, take those first couple steps…and that is by FAR the hardest part.   

4.  It is possible for nipples to chafe so badly that they can, and do, bleed. (Note to self: get some body glide)

3.  Let your body tell you when to stop or take it easy. If a part of you is in pain, take it as a sign that you should take it easy for a day or two.  Having a completely reconstructed knee, it told me early on that I needed ease in to this running thing.

2.  Set a long term goal, either a race or arbitrary. (ex. Run ‘x’ miles, or lose ‘x’ lbs.) Then find someone to help you setup a plan to get you to that goal.  Here is the one I will be looking at next: http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/novices.html

1.  Find the Motivation: It’s great to have the motivation from people who want you to succeed.  I found a lot of motivation from proving the people who didn’t think I could do it wrong. But in the end, as a wise person taught me:  You ALWAYS have to do it for yourself.   Running is an individual sport, and only you can make it across the finish line.